Free I Adored a Lord by Katharine Ashe Page A

hurried away, the light from his candle sparkling on the silver piping of his smart coat as it bobbed around the corner.
    â€œHow did you know to ask him that?” Lord Vitor said.
    â€œFor six years I have been a servant in a grand house whose master enjoys entertaining.”
    â€œAnd now you are a lady in a castle seeking a princely groom.”
    She was not, no matter what her sister wished. “I will investigate this murder whether you or the local police wish me to or not.”
    There was a stillness about his contemplation of her that at once made her breathe more deeply and unnerved her.
    â€œYou have me against the wall, it seems,” he finally said.
    â€œI do.”
    â€œThe moment I have cause for concern over your safety, I will remove you to the village.”
    â€œYou will do no such thing. You haven’t the right. I may not actually be a lady, but I am a guest of the prince—­”
    â€œWho will do as I advise.” He seemed entirely confident of this.
    Suspicion prickled at Ravenna. “Who is to say you are not the murderer, and now that you know I have useful information you won’t dispatch me too?”
    â€œNone but me.”
    She glanced into the darkness where the butler had disappeared, then back at the tall, dark man who had subdued her quite effectively in a stable the previous night. “This is the part where you pull out the bloodstained dagger, isn’t it?”
    â€œWhy wouldn’t I have done it earlier, before Monsieur Brazil knew of your involvement?”
    â€œNo doubt you only thought of it at this moment.”
    â€œIt seems I am carelessly shortsighted.”
    â€œIt does.”
    â€œMiss Caulfield?”
    â€œYou are not the murderer?”
    â€œGo to bed.” He grasped her fingers and tucked them around the lamp handle. For a moment he lingered, his large, strong hand encompassing hers, and she thought that no man who murdered another could possibly have such a marvelously warm, gentle touch. Then he released her. “The prince will call the party together after breakfast. If you truly intend to assist in this—­”
    â€œI do.”
    â€œYou must have your wits about you.”
    â€œI always have my wits about me.”
    â€œI think I am coming to see that.”
    â€œYou haven’t dispatched me because you know you need my help.”
    â€œDo I?” He took a half step closer. “Or perhaps I have not yet dispatched you because, as depraved as I am, when I look at your lips I can feel your body beneath mine in the straw. If I were to do away with you now, that scenario could never be repeated.”
    Her breaths were no longer deep but tight and quick. “Dream well tonight, sir. It is all you are going to get from me again.”
    He smiled.
    She ducked around him and escaped.

 
    Chapter 5

    The Suspects
    S now fell again, casting the drawing room in a pale white light broken by spots of gold from lamps and the hearths on either side of the chamber. Prince Sebastiao’s guests sat in anxious little clusters about gilded tables. Above them, paintings of long-­dead kings and queens wearing enormous ruffed collars and wigs glittered in gold frames. The prince stood at the doorway surveying his guests, Lord Vitor at his side.
    â€œWhy do ye think he’s called us all together like this?” Lady Iona leaned into Ravenna’s shoulder. “Do ye suppose he’s already chosen a bride?”
    â€œI don’t think he could have chosen her so soon.” This awkward gathering had nothing to do with brides.
    â€œI wish he’d choose brides for his friends. Better yet, why dinna we? I’ll let ye choose whichever ye wish—­Lord Case or Lord Vitor—­an’ I’ll have the thither. Is it a deal?”
    Lord Whitebarrow and his pinch-­nosed wife entered the drawing room. Lady Iona hummed low in her throat. “Nou, there’s a laird